In class last week we watched a Frontline documentary called “In the Age of AI '' which describes how AI is affecting our society and workforce. In the video, AI is known as artificial intelligence which “mimics the neutral networks of the human brain” (Frontline). The AI system has become an important tool and wants to help humans for the better. It’s argued that using AI, companies will make more money in the long run. In the video, it discussed how some companies used AI to produce robots. As a result, using AI the robots can accomplish different tasks and learn routines. In the video it stated that “AI is likely to bring accelerated change to the U.S. workforce” (Frontline). They believe by cutting down the number of workers, and increasing automation, this will increase their rate of production. However, this change will take away jobs from other workers.
We learned that automation causes the standard of living to lower, which hurts our society tremendously. Being unemployed, families are more prone to poverty, diseases, and drop out of school. It is also argued that the AI system knows too much. In the video it stated that AI is not “just following instructions, it’s figuring out its own instructions'' (Video). Imagine, how much do they really know about us using AI? We learned that some places are tempted to use this advanced technology over their limits, especially using social media. What stuck with me the most while watching the video was it stated, “we thought we were using social media, but in reality social media is using us for their own doing” (Frontline). This usage is because corporations are using their social media platforms to gather private information about its users for their own good, which is troubling for some.
I found this information very unsettling how much technology has an impact on our lives. It has made me consider how much time I spend on social media and what I post. It’s scary to think there are businesses out there, who are entirely focused on their users and want to know what you are doing online all the time. The worst part about this, is how these certain companies want to keep this secret under wraps and don’t want others to know. They have realized that technology has such a major impact on real world behavior, and by managing this activity online can create good for their company. For example, Facebook. In the video how Facebook is guilty of doing this. I did some further research on my own and I found a Forbes article from 2019 called “Facebook Has Just Been Caught Spying on Users’ Private Messages and Data... Again” written by Zach Doffman. It states, “desperate for data on its competitors, Facebook has been secretly paying people to install a ‘Facebook Research’ VPN that lets the company suck in all of a user’s phone and web activity” (Doffman). Facebook apparently admitted to conducting this search and does not see anything wrong with what they are doing.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, during this time responded to Facebook and said, “the ability of anyone to know what you’ve been browsing about for years, who your contacts are, who their contacts are, things you like and dislike and every intimate detail of your life from my own point of view, it shouldn't exist” (Doffman). I couldn’t agree more with that statement. I feel what Facebook and other social media platforms are doing is an abuse of power and privacy. In the video it discussed how laws were made such as” the right to know” and “right to say no”. These laws were put in place so businesses can’t track you and you’re aware of what they gathered on you. Sadly, companies still gather information without us knowing. I think there should be more regulations put in place regarding social media. Social media can be effective in expressing creativity, but the amount of unknown surveillance that is conducted is terrifying and needs to be properly regulated.
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